Word: shielding
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...legal one. It ruled that a political consultant who planted damaging facts about an opponent could sue two Minnesota dailies for printing his name after reporters vowed not to. Yet the trend is toward more subpoenas to reveal sources, even in the 28 states that offer some sort of shield law, in part because judges often nullify the protection. They are especially prone to do so in cases involving serious crime. Reporters reply that the information being sought can be found in other ways or is not essential. In covering Charles Stuart -- the Boston man who claimed his wife...
Occasional cases involve outright judicial pique. California Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins defied the logic of the state shield law, which bars judges from finding reporters in contempt for protecting a source, when Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times would not say how he got a secret report about the notorious videotaped police beating of Rodney King. In May, Kamins imposed a $1,500-a-day fine, later much reduced, claiming the punishment was not for contempt but for refusal to expose who violated Kamins' gag order...
...stop the blockades, basing their legal argument on sections of an 1871 law popularly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. Although the act was initially designed to protect freed slaves from intimidation by Southern whites, some federal courts have ruled that it may also be used to shield women seeking abortions from pro-lifers' wrath. With this as precedent, Kelly on July 23 enjoined Operation Rescue from blocking entrance to the clinics...
...major American pharmaceutical companies have all but abandoned the field. Of the nine doing research in contraceptives 20 years ago, only one (Ortho Pharmaceutical) is still active. The others have been scared off by the fear of costly lawsuits like the one that drove the maker of the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine device, into bankruptcy, and by public controversy such as that surrounding RU-486, the French "abortion pill...
...yakuza is Japan's version of the Mafia, a shadowy mob brotherhood that often operates behind a shield of what appears to be legitimate business fronts. According to Japanese press reports, one such business is West Tsusho, a Tokyo-based real estate firm that has bought into two American companies with the help of an unusually well-placed U.S. middleman: Prescott Bush Jr., 68, the President's elder brother...